It’s Jordan’s 26th birthday party and make or break time for his family curse. Maggie’s job in this episode is to keep him alive until the stroke of midnight in hopes of breaking the curse forever, but the ghost of the witch who cursed his ancestor does everything in her power, including possessing Swan, to keep the spell intact. Meanwhile, Abigail asks for Harry’s help in overcoming the poison she’s been given. Sensing that Abigail might not be completely honest about what happened, Macy tags along to Abby’s new Seattle apartment to lend a hand. Mel and Ray continue to investigate the people who are after him, while also working through their issues.
Recap
SafeSpace is hopping with Jordan’s birthday bash. Swan even brought him a sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free cake that’s shaped like a boxing ring. It’s cute, but Jordan looks like he might prefer to look at it instead of eat it.
Maggie has been staring at Jordan staring at her all night, and it’s not because they have adorable crushes on each other. She’s watching him because she’s trying to keep him alive until midnight, when he officially turns 26, since all of the men in his family die at age 25 due to a witch’s curse. He’s staring at her because he knows she faked her own death and is curious, but we won’t be talking about that until later.
Maggie has to get Jordan through the next 2 hours and 9 minutes, but who’s counting. Macy is confused- wasn’t saving Jordan from Parker enough to beat the curse? Maggie doesn’t think so.
She has a thing for damsels in distress boys in need and she knows when her man still has trouble hanging over his head. I do love heroic Maggie.
Ray shows up at the party, having gotten bored alone up in the house. Mel, worried that he’ll blow their cover with the normals, suggests it’s time for him to resume his own life, such as it was. Ray is thinking he’s got a pretty sweet deal hiding out with his daughters.
Mel insists that he contact the buyers he sold the talisman to, like he said he would, so they can figure out their connection to Harry Darklighter. Ray insists that the buyers are dangerous. Ray and Mel are almost exactly as stubborn as each other, but Mel has the upper hand on this one, since it’s her house.
Macy gets a text from Julian Shea, the billionaire from last week, suggesting she meet him in Aspen, with a plane ticket included. Before she can decide, Harry finds her and they look into each other’s eyes for a minute. Then Abigail stumbles in, collapses dramatically into Harry’s arms, and begs him for help.
Mel tells Maggie that they need to go with Ray to contact his buyers, but Maggie won’t leave the party until she knows Jordan is safe. Mel says it’ll be fine, then the lights go out- it’s just time to sing Happy Birthday. While everyone is singing, Maggie has a premonition of the heavy sign that’s hanging over Jordan falling on him.
When she opens her eyes, she notices the sign is wobbly and runs to shove him out of the way just before it falls. Jordan is shocked and considers going home, but Maggie convinces him to stay and share some beer and hummus. Jordan agrees, but clearly wonders how his party ended up with such tragic food. He thanks her for saving his life.
At least they haven’t pulled out last week’s kombucha yet.
Mel has to go alone with Ray on their field trip. For a second, the girls hope he’s changed, but then they notice him flirting with a much younger woman.
Harry determines that Abigail was poisoned with a hellebore venom. The only antidote is a lavender witch hazel injection. Abby has no idea who poisoned her. Harry offers to take Abby home, but Macy won’t let him go alone. She doesn’t trust Abby, but he thinks it’s important that they keep the demon overlord close.
Harry: “Funny, I used to be the one protecting you.”
Macy: “Well, now we protect each other.”
Be still my heart.
Ray is thrilled with the Command Center’s potential, both financially and archaeologically. Mel picks out an item he can sell to his buyers, and puts a tracking spell on it, while he assesses items for future sales. Mel tells him to leave the vial of black amber alone, then says it’s worthless, which of course he doesn’t believe. He pockets it a minute later.
The buyers want to meet in Reno. Ray is in for another surprise when Mel introduces him to the portal system.
Jordan tells Maggie that it seems like his family is cursed, since the men all die at 25. His dad died of a brain aneurysm, his uncle died in a car crash and his grandfather died in Vietnam. He was sort of expecting something to happen to him as well. That’s why he’s already tried to live as much life as possible.
Maggie says that she understands living with fear. Jordan says he isn’t surprised, since she’s already dead. He points out that it’s hard to fake your own death these days, with social media documenting everything. Maggie tries to explain, but he says that it’s none of his business. Parker seemed dangerous, so he assumes it had something to do with that.
He does want to know what happened when Maggie went into the switch room and disappeared, though. She just went “poof”. Maggie suggests that between the curse and the “poof” maybe he should lay off the edibles, which he nods to acknowledge could be it.
Then a cold draft blows through the room and he runs upstairs to check the thermostat. Maggie hears the crackle of frost forming and turns to see writing forming on the fog of a cold door. It says, “He is mine.” A female ghost appears in the shadowed hallway.
The ghost is wearing an old fashioned nightgown and has burn scars on her face. She screams and flies toward and past Maggie. Maggie runs into Kat’s store to find the ingredients for a spell to capture her. The witch appears behind Jordan, but Maggie quickly casts her spell and traps the ghost in a mirror in the store.
Mel and Ray wait in a cafe for the buyers. They make and stir their tea in exactly the same way. Ray asks about her love life. She complains that he was a bad role model. Ray contends that he and Marisol loved each other and shared everything. Mel points out that they lied about the most important things in their lives, then he left.
They’re interrupted by the buyers. He tells her to stay in the cafe while he meets them, so she’ll be safe. She pretends she’s letting him go alone.
Macy and Harry take Abby back to the sleek new apartment she’s rented in Seattle. Abby plays helpless with Harry and baits Macy.
Abby to Macy: “What’s yours is mine, or something like that.”
On her way to the bathroom, Macy discovers that Abby had already brewed the antidote injection for the poison.
Maggie tries to reason with the ghost, but she’s too traumatized to negotiate peace. Jordan’s witchfinder ancestor killed 25 women who lived in the previous version of SafeSpace, and she can’t forgive or forget.
Ray’s buyer, Nadia (Peyton List), calls him a dead man walking, referring to the fact that he faked his death and went into hiding. He shows her the Cintamani prism he brought to settle his debts and tells her he got it in India. Her companion runs a scanner over it. It initially passes, but as they walk away, an alarm goes off. Nadia accuses him of placing a tracker on it and pulls a gun on him.
She knocks him down and threatens him. He pulls out the black amber and tells her it’s from the same source as the talisman. Nadia wants him to be more specific about his source, but her gun becomes too hot to hold. Mel comes out of the shadows and forces them to drive away.
Ray noticed a tattoo on Nadia’s wrist while she was threatening him. Mel and Ray yell at each other for lying to each other and almost getting killed.
Abby flirts with Harry while he tries to figure out who poisoned her. Macy confronts Abby alone and says she knows Abby poisoned herself. Abby says that she was just trying to get some alone time with Harry. She appreciates his goodness in a way Macy doesn’t.
Maggie frantically searches for a spell to permanently send the ghost on her way, but before she can find one the ghost breaks free from the mirror. An uncrossing ritual would send her back to the spirit realm, but it takes three people to do it.
The ghost sends Jordan flying then possesses Swan. She makes Swan’s head do a 180 degree Exorcist turn before attacking Maggie. Maggie beats her up, then drags Jordan to the switch room. Swan loudly tries to get in, so Maggie is forced to tell Jordan the curse is real.
Ray apologizes for stealing the black amber. He explains that he needed a Plan B. They realize they can get the car’s license plate from a nearby surveillance camera and track Nadia that way.
Harry is surprised that Abby would poison herself for attention. Macy reveals that she saw them kiss in the Command Center. He agrees that he and Macy should go home, but first he wants to talk to Abby for a minute.
Back in the Command Center, Ray draws Nadia’s tattoo to give Mel another clue to track.
She asks him why he and Marisol really split up. He tells her that when he and Marisol met, they were both university professors. They were young and fell wildly and passionately in love. But he was devoted to his work, which took him all over the world and she was raising Mel alone. She fell back in love with Macy’s father and soon Maggie was born. He always knew Maggie wasn’t his biological child.
After that, he and Marisol tried to make it work, but he knew that her heart belonged to someone else. It broke his heart and he began drinking more. Eventually, he cheated on her as well, then left.
While Ray is coming clean downstairs, Maggie is telling the truth to Jordan upstairs- 130 years ago, his great great great grandfather, Lawrence Mortimer Chase, burnt down the Tulipe Asylum, which once stood on the spot of SafeSpace, because it was a sanctuary for witches. As she lay dying, one of the witches put a curse on Lawrence Mortimer Chase and his entire lineage, so that they would all die at the age of 25.
But if Jordan can survive the next 17 minutes and reach the age of 26, the curse will be broken. Jordan thinks it all sounds crazy but is also the only thing that makes sense. He asks how she knows about his family’s history.
She’s about to confess her secret when the lights blow out. Swan has found a way into the room. Maggie yells the incantaion to open the door to the Command Center and rushes Jordan in.
Harry tries to let Abby down gently. He could never date a demon, after all. She reminds him that she’s only a half demon, and she’s half witch. he brings out the best in her. And, forget about the Darklighter- she sees him as whole.
Macy rushes in to tell Harry they have to get back to the Command Center to help Maggie.
Ray initiates Jordan into the joys of sitting on the sidelines while the ladies work. Maggie borrows Jordan’s ring to help with the ritual, then Mel and Maggie go back upstairs to face Swan. Harry and Macy orb in to meet them. Maggie explains that they need to do the uncrossing ritual on Swan.
After a bit of cat and mouse, Swan captures Maggie and holds a clawed finger to her throat. She threatens to Kill Maggie and burn SafeSpace to the ground unless they bring Jordan to her. Maggie reminds the witch that if she does that, she’ll become just like the man she hates. She begs the witch to remember what she is, and let Jordan go, on the grounds that he’s a decent man who’s nothing like his ancestor. Maggie tells the witch that Jordan wants her to have her ring back. The witch/Swan lets Maggie go and takes the ring.
The ghost witch tells the Charmed Ones that she’s ready to be sent to the spirit realm. They each repeat the incantation to set her free. Before she leaves, the witch appears as a ghost in her uninjured human form. Maggie thanks her for sparing Jordan. The witch says that witches’ curses aren’t broken so easily. Jordan isn’t free yet. She whispers in Maggie’s ear, then disappears.
Later, Maggie and Jordan finally have that beer and she tells him the curse isn’t broken until he balances the scales of justice. Neither of them knows what that means. Jordan asks her to clear up some myths about witches. She tells him that witches and humans rarely work out, but they can be friends. Swan wakes up with a sore neck. Jordan thanks Maggie again, then drives Swan home.
Harry tells Macy that he’s going to go back and check up on Abby, since they left her so quickly. Macy can’t understand why he cares about Abby, when she’s evil and manipulated him. He says that they need Abby on their side and it’s none of Macy’s business, anyway, since he just caught her mooning over her texts with Julian. He says he’ll take care of himself and she can take care of herself. Macy denies having feelings for Julian, and acts like she’s hurt that Harry could even suggest such a thing.
Harry; “Alright, let’s drop the pretense. You know how I feel about you, so please, don’t make this harder than it already is. You should have what and whomever your heart desires, Macy. Goodbye.”
Best kiss off ever. Right up there with Rhett Butler.
Macy has the nerve to look like she’s the one who’s been hurt, because I guess she wants Harry to be so good that he sits passively at home waiting for her instead of moving on with another part demon part witch.
It’s a night for bad decisions, so Macy texts Julian, then dials up Aspen on the portal, all with tears in her eyes.
He gave you the opening, hon. You’re the one who won’t take it and won’t let him go.
Ray, who is a walking bad decision, gives Mel the phone number of his friend Choochi, a discrete retired cop who can help track down the owner of the car with the license plate. Mel asks him to stay, but he insists that it’s too dangerous, since they’ll be searching for him. He has to leave, before they connect him to the daughter they’ve already seen him with, just like he had to leave when she was little, even though he wanted to stay.
Yeah, I think we’ve established that he had his priorities when she was small, and he has the same ones now. But he talks a good game. She should probably frisk him and search his bags on his way out.
Nadia is in a lab with a man who doses a dead rodent with black amber. It comes back to life. Nadia is excited that the magic worked.
Commentary
Is black amber the sap of the tree of life? What else can it do? Once word gets out that it can bring the dead back to life, it’s going to be in high demand.
Abigail is skillfully pushing everyone’s buttons tonight, and I don’t trust her motives for a minute. Whatever she wants from Harry, she doesn’t think it will be good for him in the long run. It’s delightful to watch her enjoy her work so much, though. Sometimes the actress and character seem to be trying too hard, but this episode felt closer to the right tone.
Macy doesn’t know what she wants, and I suport her in her uncertainty, for the moment. Forget about the half a man, too good for a demon issue– Harry is an old man to her, who was involved with a woman of her mother’s generation last season. He was introduced as a guardian angel and she was explicitly told not to think of him that way. Then he was Charity’s long, long-term boyfriend. It would be like dating your uncle or your mother’s best friend’s boyfriend.
Sure, he’s in a timeless Rupert Evans package, so she’ll eventually get over it, but she needs a minute. Plus, she had that whole thing with her first boyfriend, Galvin, sort of dying because of her, then coming back, then dying again. That could mess a girl up for a while, too. Macy might not want to ruin another important friendship that way, you know?
Jordan is looking especially good during his rescue and introduction to the world of magic in this episode. I suspect that it’s basically his introduction to his real life. He didn’t die, but he has to devote himself to fathering witch babies or protecting witches or being a witch lawyer. Maybe he would have become a Whitelighter, if that weren’t an extinct profession. Somehow, he has to account for the number of witch lives that were lost, minus the number of men in his family who have died young. So, maybe 15ish witches?
He and Ray have both shown small hints of having an affinity for magic, like they have a little bit of something in them, the way Jason and Sookie Stackhouse have a touch of Fairy blood in True Blood. But maybe that’s just from hanging around with witches. Or maybe there’s something to Jordan being descended from a witchfinder who kept a magical ring and Ray having a talent for finding magical items. Indiana Jones spin off for the two of them, complete with crossover episodes? Something has to replace Supernatural, and a Texas Ranger isn’t realy the same thing.
Ray tells Mel the story of the time he hid out in an ancient Akkadian crypt while ISIS raided his dig site in Iraq. He was in there for 3 days, trapped in the tomb of Naram-sin, a king who thought he was a god. Mel notes that he and Naram-sin had a lot in common. It may just be a story, but it might come up again later in the season, as these things have a way of doing.
Images courtesy of The CW.
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